Julian Taylor (surgeon)
Julian Taylor | |
|---|---|
| Born | 26 January 1889 |
| Died | 15 April 1961 (aged 72) |
| Education | University College School, London University College Hospital, London |
| Years active | 1911 to 1961 |
| Relatives | Sir Geoffrey Ingram Taylor OM |
| Medical career | |
| Profession | Surgeon |
| Institutions | University College Hospital, London University of Khartoum, Sudan |
| Sub-specialties | neurological surgery |
Professor Julian Taylor, C.B.E., M.S., F.R.C.S., Hon.F.R.A.C.S. (26 January 1889 – 15 April 1961) was a specialist in neurological surgery, Senior Surgeon at University College Hospital, a former Vice-President of the Royal College of Surgeons and later Professor of Surgery at the University of Khartoum.
Born in St. John's Wood, London, his father was the artist Edward Ingram Taylor and his mother, Margaret Boole, came from a family of mathematicians (his aunt was Alicia Boole Stott and his grandfather was George Boole). His brother was the physicist Sir Geoffrey Ingram Taylor OM. Educated at University College School and University College Hospital, he qualified in 1911, an immediate disciple of Wilfred Trotter, one of the pioneers in neurosurgery, graduated M.B.,B.S., with honours in medicine in the following year and took the F.R.C.S. in 1914.
At a time when his contemporaries in other military areas were becoming major generals and achieving knighthoods, Taylor was a prisoner of war in Changi Prison camp, struggling with unspeakable conditions and lack of antiseptics and anaesthetics, with 2,500 wounded soldiers, 500 compound fractures, septicaemia, dysentery, avitaminosis, making artificial limbs out of aluminium fan blades and Thomas knee-splints. He tells the heart-rending story, without comment, in Chapter 25 of the volume on 'Surgery' in the History of the Second World War, United Kingdom Medical Services. When he came back to England from the prison camp his malnutrition was such that he broke both his arms on arrival.